Precious
by TheYearOfDelena115
Summary: Elena's a rich senior high schooler who wants passion & adventure. Damon's a womanizing college senior who has a horrible reputation. How will they change when they fall in love? Damon tries his hardest to fight against it because he doesn't want to suck her into the world he's destined into. Elena fights for it because she can't live without him. Can they overcome the obstacles?
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

"Stefan, there you are-" I started to say, and at the same time I walked over to him and put my arms on his shoulders so that I could turn his body around to face me.

"Oh, you're not Stefan." I laughed, when I noticed that the face I was looking at, could not have been anymore different than who I thought it was. "You're that college senior all the girls talk about." I smiled as I walked away from him.

"You know who I am?" He grinned, and was staring at me so deeply as if he was trying to look through my mask.

"Damon Salvatore, who hasn'theard of all those terrible things you've done to all of those _poor_ college girls." I giggled, as he rolled his eyes at me as I explained all of the things I had heard of him.

My sister, who goes to school with this kid, and gave me his exact description, told me that his reputation was so terrible, girls were only categorized at school between if you had slept with him, or if you hadn't. The stupid part was that I heard that no matter what this guy did, girls would continue to flock to him, without regard for his previous actions. Every girl swore that he wouldn't do the same thing to them, but it never turned out to be true. I never understood why girls would be so silly, but then again, he was so hot I'm sure it was worth it.

"You have quite a tragic reputation, how do you live with yourself?" I laughed bluntly, slightly amused by the look on his face as he understood what I was asking him.

"Why do girls always have to go and spread lies? I bet not even half of what you've heard is true." His voice was deep, very manly, and attractive. As he spoke, he laughed at me, but at the same time you could sense that he was just trying to be charming and convincing.

"Well everything I've heard about you is quite interesting, especially the part where you're always getting into trouble." I paused as I was waiting for his facial response, but when he looked eager for me to finish my sentence I said, "if what they say about you is true, then I'm pleased to meet you." I smiled and offered him my hand as if I was the hostess of the party, and at the same time I took a sip of the champagne I had been drinking. "I admire your _wild_ adventures." I smiled.

"Well," He took his hand and lifted my palm to his lips for a soft kiss." I hate to disappoint you but, you shouldn't always believe what you hear." He lowered my hand slowly, and never took his eyes off me as he smiled.

"Well, then I'm disappointed. Because this party is super boring, and I was looking for entertainment." I sighed.

"Aren't you a little _young_ to be here?" He laughed at me, and I almost blushed in embarrassment.

My face was hidden behind my mask, and it's not like my impeccable figure was any hint to my innocence. In fact, my body had allowed me to get alcohol illegally for years. So how did he know?

"You don't know how old I am." I told him, saying it very matter-of-factly.

"I know you're probably not old enough to be drinking that." He said, as he pointed towards my drink.

"How would you know? You can't even see my face." I smiled, and then took off my mask and stepped into the light, so that he could now see me clearly, and so that I could breathe properly.

I watched him examine my face with a hint of shock. First he looked at my hair, which was being hidden since my mask was extremely large. My light chocolate colored hair was wavy and shiny. I was usually tan, but now I was very tan because it was august and I had been tanning all summer in Europe. My nose wasn't large but it wasn't the smallest nose in the world. And when he was finally down looking at my thin, heart-shaped face, he went back to looking at my dazzling blue eyes.

"Because of your _eyes_." He started, "they're extremely innocent and make it obvious that you haven't done anything _too_ terrible in your short years of living."

"Oh and you're just so much older than I am." I rolled my eyes at him, and my facial expression made him grin.

"Oh yeah, you should be calling me grandpa." He laughed at me, as if he were in on his own little secret.

"Well then, grandpa, aren't you a little late to your own party?" I asked, wondering why the host of the party decided not to show up until 1 am.

"Not really, I kind of don't want to go in. I mean if one of the prettiest girls in the party is standing outside, why would I want to go in?" He asked me, and I rolled my eyes at the same time as I smiled since he was complimenting me, he was a gorgeous college senior, and I was a simple senior. In _high school._

_ "_You _are_ as bad as they say." I smiled at him, my cheeks flushing, but I was flirting.

"Well, I had to try." He smiled at me. "But the real reason I haven't come to the party is because I knew I was gonna have a terrible time. I mean you've been in there, how bad is it?" His question seemed strange, but at the same time I knew exactly what he meant.

"Well, hardly any girls are dancing, I think they're all waiting to dance with you. And any girls who are dancing keep looking at the door anytime someone walks in through the door. I felt like I was the only one dancing." I sighed.

"Are you too tired to dance with me now?" He asked me.

"I think so." I nodded in a most flirty manner as I started walking the opposite direction of the party.

"That's too bad." He said, sounding disappointed. "I was looking forward to a dance with you." He shook his head.

"You don't even know my name." I smiled and pushed him lightly on the shoulder and walked away from him. "How could you look forward to anything?"

"I'm an optimistic guy." He grinned, now looking very cocky. "I'll get that dance one day."

"Oh you will?" I asked, smiling in a way that made him a little curious.

"You bet I will." He whispered and before I knew it he kissed me on the cheek and left.


	2. Chapter 2 - I wanna go Crazy

I Wanna go Crazy

"Miss Gilbert, it's time to wake up now," I heard the sweet voice of Lucy, my maid since birth, say.

She was intelligent to come herself, because she knew if it had been anybody else I would have had a fit and never actually woken up. Instead of screaming at the maid, I gave Lucy a big hug and gave her my hand so that she could drag me out of bed, put my robe on me, and lead me to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

As I brushed my teeth, and washed my face, I looked at the mirror and saw the reflection of Lucy's very pretty face. She was a little chubby, had rosy cheeks, and light green eyes. Her maid uniform wasn't very flattering, but if she wasn't wearing it, I felt like I was looking at a different person. It would be like looking at a nun who wears her habit every day, and then magically decides to wear a mini skirt. _Ew, _yuck. But Lucy's appearance was just as sweet and innocent as her name, in fact she was so adorable that she made me smile. She smiled back at me and pulled my favorite perfume from behind her back and sprayed me with it when I was ready. She left me for only a few moments when I was changing, even though it wasn't necessary. Lucy had been my maid for 16 years, and bathed me until I was 12. Sure, I liked my independence, but Lucy was like my mother, I had felt for many years a very close attachment to her. I put my uniform on and went downstairs so that my hair could be brushed and I could eat my breakfast.

"What is this?" I asked as one maid put a plate of eggs with cheese on my table, another brought me pancakes, and another brought me a strawberry and banana shake.

"It's what your mother told the chef to prepare for you this morning, miss." Selena, one of my newer maids said.

I wanted to remind her that it was _step-_mother, but she had been my mother for so long that I decided to let it go this once.

"Where's Lucy?" I asked, as I looked around for her, she knew what I liked to eat, not Amy, my stepmother.

"I'm right here." Lucy replied as she started walking into the dining room.

"Where's my sister?" I asked her, as I continued to look around for her.

"Jenna went out running early in the morning with your stepmother, she hasn't come back yet." Lucy sweetly replied and touched my chin and made me look at my plate of food. "Now hurry up and eat your food because it's getting cold and you're running late."

"You know I can't eat all of this." I laughed and grabbed my smoothie and started to stand up. "Get the driver please, I'm ready to go."

"You never eat anything." Lucy shook her head.

"I eat all the time, I just hate breakfast. Please get the car." I smiled at her and she laughed and walked away.

As I got up and walked towards the car I thought of how my first day of school would be, and the truth was, I wasn't all that excited. Today was going to suck, and nothing anybody said would change that.

Today, I would start my senior year of high school. I wasn't excited for the first semester where I was going to have to work my ass off just to get into a good college. But I knew that that was what was waiting for me anyways. I also wasn't excited for the drama that was to come but I knew and accepted it. I was a little excited to see my friends again, but I wasn't excited for the attitudes the first day of school always brought to them.

As we drove off Star Island, I couldn't help but think about what the day was to bring. But honestly, I knew I was going to be bored. The only thing I really, really wanted to do was ditch. I wanted to go to Australia or Fiji or something and spend a week there, maybe even a month! I wanted to go to all of the places my father never let me go, and I just wanted summer to come back. So that I wouldn't have to study all of the time, and have to deal with the drama of my world that was sure to come. My life was so boring, and all of these high school years were the same. So why did I really have to show up to school every year? It was only Monday and already I wanted the weekend to come. And because I knew I couldn't have been the only girl who was feeling this way, I looked forward to the party that I knew was to come this weekend.

"Here you are Ms. Gilbert." Remy, my driver said.

"For the love of god Remy, don't call me Ms. Gilbert. My sister's the miss around here, I'm just Elena, and I have been for the past 14 years that you've known me." I shook my head and he laughed at me as I got out of the car.

As I walked towards the Senior's hallway, two girls linked onto my arms and started laughing.

"Elena!" They both giggled.

"Caroline, Bonnie, how are you two so excited for the first day of school?" I sighed and looked at them as if they were evil spirits as they both so giddily walked by my side.

"Because, it's the first day of school!" Caroline replied.

"You guys are insane." I shook my head and laughed at them.

"You're probably the only girl at school who's not excited for school today." Caroline replied.

Well that's because I go to school with a group of freaks.

"Where's everybody else?" I wondered, ignoring Caroline's last comment.

"They asked us to get you, you're late you know." Bonnie smiled at me.

I immediately knew what they meant. It was 7:20 am, and there was no way I was late for school when it started at 8 am. I was late for the meeting Vikki was probably leading this year, and the truth was I was not excited for it.

"Where are you going?" Bonnie asked me as I walked backwards.

"I want a Frap from Starbucks." I quickly told them, it was the quickest excuse I could come up with, but it wasn't exactly a lie.

"But we can just get someone to get it for you," Caroline reminded me. "Vikki's gonna get-"

"I want to do it myself, I'll be back soon I promise!" And then I started to run.

It felt fun to do something that was against all of the principles I needed for the year. It felt great to not show up to the meetings, and it was at that moment in time when I decided something.

_I'm going to do whatever I want this year_, I thought to myself. _Whatever I want. _

As I slowly walked to Starbucks I decided that I was going to have so much fun this year that I was going to be terrible. I was always _crazy_, but this year I was going to be crazy in school as well. As I walked inside Starbucks, there was a thirty people line. I immediately skipped the whole line and decided to order.

"Excuse me miss, um," The employee started.

"Yes?" I asked, laughing at the whole situation and the adrenaline I was feeling.

"Can I take your order?" She replied, sighing, and I could practically feel the eyes that were burning into my back.

"Of course you can." I grinned, and just to be a bitch I decided to do something hilarious. "I'll take everything here.

"What?" The employee asked me again.

"I want everything. One of everything, and don't worry, I have people who will help me take it."

"That's probably gonna take a while, um," the person told me.

"It better not, or I'm gonna have a problem, and will have to talk to your manager." I lied, the truth was talking to this persons manager would probably make me freak out, plus I wasn't that mean.

"Alright, um, I'll try?" The lady whose name tag said Tonya, said as she pressed all of the buttons on the menu.

"That'll be 3,000 dollars?" The lady said after 5 minutes of pressing, and I quickly handed her my black Amex and laughed.

"Wow, um, I'll have everything ready now." The girl awkwardly said as she turned around and helped the ten workers that we're now working on my order.

I didn't feel like walking all the way to school with half of the girls just so they could get all of the drinks I just paid for. Instead, I decided to be nice.

"Thanks for letting me cut you guys in line," I paused as I grabbed my vanilla bean Frappucino. "Um, if you guys like any of these things feel free to grab it, this is all I want." I smiled and was about to leave until I grabbed a cake lollipop. And then I started walking away.

I heard the commotion of people as they all rushed for the drinks, and I laughed to myself silently. I slowly walked outside and as I headed to my school, a kid was in a car full of kids and he slowed down to tell me,

"Thanks for the drinks, that was really cool."

"No problem," I smiled, and kept walking.

The kids went to Mast Academy, I knew this because their uniforms said it. The kid literally stopped and didn't move after thanking me.

"Do you need a ride to St. Marks?" The kid asked me, and even though it was a little creepy, I still considered it.

"Nah, I'm not exactly in a hurry to get to school." I shook my head.

"Me and my friends are gonna head down to the beach cause we're ditching, you wanna come?" The cute, still kind of creepy guy asked me.

"You know what?" I told him, "why not?" I laughed and they opened the door to their cheap audi A4 convertible and I immediately laughed as they took the top down.

Crazy? Maybe a little more than usual, even for me, but you know what? I didn't care. Because I would do anything to get out of class.

I was about to get in the car when I got a text from Stefan. Oh fuck. He caught me. He always does.

'Where the hell are you?' The text said.

Stefan seemed to be having his usual heart attack about my random disappearance.

'On my way to the beach. You want to come?' I texted him back.

I knew he would not be pleased.

'Elena, don't do this. Please come back to school. It's the first day!' Stefan texted back within seconds.

'Will you pick me up?' I responded as I slowly got into the car.

'Yes. But you'll owe me forever.'

'Then no. Have fun in class, Stef. ;)' Owe Stefan forever? Please, as if I didn't already owe him everything! I didn't need any more debt in his department if I was going to be honest.

Stefan was my best friend. More like my brother. But I mean – who cares about specifics _anyway_? Stefan was my everything. Thankfully I wasn't even remotely attracted to him. We met when we were 3 years old at the playground. Some kids were bullying him and I stood up for him and we've been best friends ever since. We were a package deal. When the extremely popular girls begged me to hang out with them, I told them that I wouldn't unless Stefan could come to – and of course they accepted.

Sometimes he liked to treat me as if he was my father, but I didn't mind. Because _everything _Stefan said was right. He always gave the best advice and he was always looking for my best interest. Sometimes I thought that he had a horrible crush on me but because he was never horribly obvious about it, it was easy to ignore. I loved Stefan with my whole heart – but as my brother! Nothing more!

It wasn't because he wasn't attractive – it was just because I knew him too well. Plus, his light hazel eyes and brown hair and tan did nothing for me. He didn't excite me. He was too much of a goody two shoes. And I loved him way too much like a brother to ever even _consider_ – blech.

I shuddered at the thought of thinking as Stefan as anything more.

* * *

"Elena." I heard Stefan yelling from downstairs as if he lived here – which he kinda did.

I rolled my eyes as I hopped of my bed where I had been reading a Cosmopolitan.

"Don't start, Stefan." I laughed as I walked to my door and saw that Stefan was already standing there.

"Why'd you do it?" He looked down at me, seemingly furious.

"I was bored Stefan." I explained.

"Of what?" He yelled.

"School. It doesn't interest me anymore." I sighed as I walked back over to sit on my bed.

"How? You didn't even go to any of your classes!" Stefan yelled. "We only had one day of school, on a Friday, and you couldn't even bother to go to any of your classes!"

I looked up at him and laughed. He tried to continue to be angry with me and then he sighed.

"Vikki was pissed." He said as he sat down next to me on my bed.

"Eh, what else is new?" I shrugged as I started reading the magazine again.

I was looking at a bunch of dresses that the celebrities had been wearing on the red carpet, when suddenly the thought of what I was wearing to the party tonight hit me.

It was one of my sister's college friend's parties. She was a college Junior, and ever since I was in the 10th grade I was allowed to come with her – as long as Stefan came with as my body guard. Tonight's party was going to be especially interesting though, because it was being thrown by the ever famous Damon Salvatore. My sister told me all sorts of horrible things about him, and I was just _dying _to meet this most interesting guy. He broke ever rule ever and got away with it. He did _whatever _he wanted _whenever _he wanted. God, I wanted that too.

"What are you wearing tonight?" I quickly got up with a grin as I ran over to my closet. "I was thinking you could wear pink and these brown shoes and-"

"Elena, stop. No more picking out my clothes." Stefan laughed as he got up and shook his head. "If another person asks me if I'm gay it's going down."

"Oh, you wouldn't hurt a fly." I rolled my eyes in a snicker. I may or may not have sometimes convinced Stefan to dress in such a classy manner that people thought he was gay. But hey – I thought he looked great!

"That you know of." Stefan rolled his eyes. "Besides, we haven't even got the clear with your dad yet."

"Oh please! He's no hassle at all. You know the drill. As long as my sister agrees that I can go to her friends' parties, and you can go, then _I_ can go. It's no big deal."

"But you still haven't asked him."

"And I won't be asking him." I smiled suspiciously.

"No? Then how the heck will we be going, pray tell?" Stefan looked uneasy. He didn't like where this was going.

"You'll be asking him."

"Elena-" Stefan already started opposing the idea.

"Please! You know he loves you." I groveled.

"Yeah, but,"

"No buts! Please Steffie, you know he takes way less time to say yes if you ask him." I looked at him with a puppy-dog face as I grabbed his arms.

Stefan looked at me hesitantly and I knew my face was crushing his resolve.

"Fine!" Stefan shook his head. "But you're gonna be the designated driver!" Stefan threw back.

Excuse me? Why the hell were we going to this party if that was the case?

* * *

"Okay!" I nodded, totally lying, but not caring one way or the other.

"I'm going to get us drinks!" I yelled at Stefan as I walked over to the bar.

Stefan started yelling something, probably along the lines of, "You promised you wouldn't drink anything." But I ignored him. Sure, I owed him for asking my dad if we could go to the party, but not drinking was _not _a fair trade

As I made my way over to the bar, I noticed that the party appeared fun. I scoured the place for the infamous Salvatore, but I had no luck in finding him.

"What'll it be?" The bartender asked.

"Two blue Hawaiians, please." I yelled over the loud song, "Sweet Nothing" that the DJ was playing.

"You got it." I heard him say right before he turned around to meet the other bartenders who were rushing to get all the drinks made.

My sister didn't care that I was underage and drinking. She was awesomely cool like that and had been since _forever_. She was my adopted sister, but I loved her almost more than anyone else on the whole planet. She was like a cool mom. She let me come to her parties with her and hung out with me all the time. Although, when we were actually _at _the parties, she was quick to ditch me and Stefan. But I didn't mind. I understood that it would be awkward to party with your little sister too.

"Here you go." The young bartender handed me the drinks and winked at me.

"Thanks." I giggle-flirted back.

I liked to flirt, it was fun. It was fun to watch men's reactions to your every move, and have them ogle you and follow you around. That was what I liked about college parties. The guys were so much more fun because they were older and way more experienced with women!

I walked back over to where I was standing a couple of minutes ago and noticed that Stefan was no longer there…

"Do you wanna dance?" Some random guy asked from behind me.

I turned around to see some guy look at me with a suspicious smile. He was attractive, with his blonde hair, brown eyes, and tall figure. But I could tell he was probably a guy that I wouldn't want to get involved with.

"I'm actually waiting for a friend." I smiled back.

"I don't see him anywhere." He replied with a grin.

"That's because he's on his way." I explained and tried to turn around.

"Come on, it's just one dance." He grabbed my arm.

"Alright, just one dance." I laughed back and put my cups on the nearest table I found. No worries, I wasn't going to pick those drinks back up ever.

After about 10 dances, and two hours later, Stefan was yet to be found. I had tried my hardest to have fun and party my socks off, but the truth was that the party was really starting to blow. It was almost one in the morning and the host had yet to show up. So naturally, all the girls here were not dancing thinking that any minute he'd show up and they had to be available for him. So guys weren't dancing because there weren't girls to dance with. So while I was one of the few girls dancing, it was less fun because people around me weren't dancing.

On top of that, Stefan had gotten lost. He hadn't texted me once and I was dying to know where he ran off to. Did he meet some girl? Maybe – but he never ditched me! He was going to have some explaining to do when I found him!

"Sorry, but I have to go." I smiled at the guy I was currently dancing with and immediately pulled myself away from his grasp. I was off to find Steffie even if that meant I was no longer allowed to dance.

I headed for the entrance to see if maybe he was sitting there waiting for me or something and saw that there was a guy that was Stefan's height standing and talking to some other guys. His hair looked a little darker than usual but I figured it was just the lighting.

"Stefan, there you are-" I started to say, and at the same time I walked over to him and put my arms on his shoulders so that I could turn his body around to face me.

"Oh, you're not Stefan."

* * *

**Did you like it?**

**So here's the deal...**

**I'm kind of sort of having a competitition between this fanfic and another one called Love is Blindness to see which I continue because 3 fanfictions at the same time is physically impossible - I know this.**

**So i guess which ever story gets to 35 reviews first will be the one I continue - unless otherwise informed... lol**

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